During the herring season here at Whitby we are frequently visited by a great number of whales. These are mainly the Minky and Pilot whales.

These magnificent creatures can be seen on a regular basis usually between the months of August and October. They are very often as close in shore as 2 miles and can be seen anywhere beyond this.

Last year there were approximately 1 dozen Pilot whales feeding for nearly 4 weeks around 7 miles offshore. With this boat we can be amongst them within half an hour and hopefully get you some cracking photos'

The Minke whale can be found pretty much anywhere in the world but they do prefer to live in the cooler waters. Mainly in the North East Atlantic and also in the North Sea. Their main diet is Krill and fish.

The usual lifespan of the Minke is around 47 years. Its body weight is usually between 5 -10 tonnes and its body length  is usually between 7 - 10 metres, the female being the larger of the two which is the usual case with baleen whales.

They have a highly visible white band on each of their flippers as can be clearly seen in the photograph above and their dorsal fin is high and curved.

Both the Minke and Pilot whale are very inquisitive creatures. Very often when we are at sea with anglers they come alongside the boat within 5 - 10 ft !!  On one occasion one of the whales actually came under the boat and scratched its back on the hull !!

Minke Whale breaking the surface next to the boat.

Minke whale feeding.

Pilot Whales are also a frequent visitor to the coast off Whitby. Again, they frequent our waters more in the summer time than anything due to the large amounts of food which is available to them. The Pilot Whales are also very inquisitive and they will at times get extreemley close to the boat too. They are one of the larger members of the dolphin family.

Pilot Whales are jet black or very dark grey in colour. The dorsal fin is set forward on the back and sweeps backwards. Adult males can reach 20 ft in length and weigh up to 3 tonnes. The female is slightly smaller at around 16 ft in length and can weigh up to 1.5 tonnes. The female can live to a grand age of 60 years and the male to around 45 years.

The Pilot Whales live in groups of between 10 and 30 usually but can live in groups of 100 or more.

Pilot Whales feed predominantly on squid. Compared to their other toothed whale relatives the Pilot Whales only have around 30 to 40 teeth whereas some of  its close relatives have up to 120 teeth such as the bottlenosed dolphins. This is thought to be an adaptation to their squid eating habits.

Pilot Whale breaks the surface next to the boat.                                                                                       

A school of Pilot Whales swimming past the boat.

We normally do whale watching trips at tea time for 2 - 3 hours however if we don't have a team of anglers at sea that day we will run the whale watching trips through the day as well.  Individuals are very welcome but we do need a minimum of 4 people on board before we sail. Group parties can book these trips for up to 12 people.

Please phone or drop me an email for any more details.

The "contact " section is on each page of this site and has all the relevant phone numbers etc...........